International tribunal condemns U.S. Border officials in torture, killing of immigrant

This article was produced by Capital Main It is published here with permission Nearly years after Anastasio Hern ndez Rojas wife began pushing for justice in her husband s killing an international human rights commission discovered that U S demarcation agents were responsible for his death and that they tortured him before he died Executives beat and shocked Hern ndez Rojas with a Taser while they were deporting him to Mexico through the San Diego edge in May He was hospitalized and died a couple of days later This is the first time that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights part of the Organization of American States of which the United States is a member has made a ruling about a law enforcement killing on U S soil In a decision published Wednesday the commission called for reopening a criminal analysis into the bureaucrats involved in Hern ndez Rojas death as well as just punishment for U S bureaucrats who it mentioned helped cover up what happened I am at peace waiting to see what the cabinet does with what s being ordered What we want is Here is the truth This is what happened Hern ndez Rojas wife Maria Puga declared in Spanish What s left for me is to keep supporting and keep fighting for other families The scenario involves the Trump administration s pick for Customs and Margin Protection commissioner Rodney Scott who was in charge of the San Diego Dividing line Patrol Sector at the time of Hern ndez Rojas death Sen Ron Wyden D-Oregon learned of the commission s decision during Scott s confirmation hearing Wednesday after questioning Scott about his actions at the time Maria Puga stands in front of a mural memorializing her husband Anastasio Hern ndez Rojas in San Diego s Chicano Park Photo by Barbara Davidson For Capital Main The U S State Department which handles cases before the commission deferred to the Department of Homeland Measure when inquired for comment Homeland Assurance and U S Customs and Demarcation Protection did not respond to requests for comment The regime had argued in that the commission didn t have jurisdiction in the circumstance because the family had previously agreed to a million settlement but the commission rejected this reasoning In the decision circulated Wednesday the commission critiqued the discrimination that Hern ndez Rojas faced from U S law enforcement as a Latino and as a migrant The tribunal s findings also condemned Customs and Territory line Protection s use-of-force policies and called for major changes to bring those policies in line with international human rights guidelines Customs and Frontier Protection is the largest law enforcement agency in the U S This commission has expressed concern that several U S laws do not require the use of non-violent means before resorting to the use of force do not provide for the use of lethal force as a last resort do not require a warning to be given prior to the use of lethal force or do not clearly and objectively define the situations in which the use of lethal force is authorized thus leaving a wide margin of discretion for interpretation by police officers the decision explained Puga explained she hopes that the ruling body implements the commission s recommendations If they follow through with that there will not be another family affected like ours Puga mentioned Cases from other countries decided by the commission have resulted in monuments being built to memorialize casualties formal apologies reopening of criminal cases and changes in law and protocol among other outcomes Including the U S there are member countries in the organization The commission s findings could set a precedent for other cases currently before the agency involving U S police killings of Black people according to Roxanna Altholz director of the Human Rights Clinic at UC Berkeley s School of Law and an attorney who represents the family of Hern ndez Rojas That includes the high profile cases of Michael Brown Jr whom police killed in Ferguson Missouri in and Sandra Bland who died in police custody in Texas in In the United States what we ve heard over and over again was these killings of -year-olds killings of unarmed civilians killings of people who are begging for mercy as Anastasio was are maybe the outcome of just bad apples and what this situation stands for very clearly is this is the aftermath of a bad system Altholz explained It s the outcome of use-of-force laws that violate international standards and fail to protect civilian life It s the impact of a justice system that has proven itself incapable of holding law enforcement agents accountable Though the commission does not have a police or military enforcement component its decisions act much like the consent decrees set up between the U S Justice Department and local law enforcement agencies who are unveiled to have discriminatory practices Altholz mentioned The commission will now monitor the U S compliance and continue to hold hearings to push the State Department for reforms Unfortunately the United States has joined countries like Colombia and Argentina and Chile and Guatemala that have been condemned by the Inter-American Commission for committing life-and-limb crimes life-and-limb human rights violations Altholz disclosed If the U S does not comply it could put into jeopardy the country s status in policing human rights in other parts of the world Altholz revealed Just last year the U S Treasury Department sanctioned entities in several countries including Iran Nicaragua and Venezuela for human rights violations For Andrea Guerrero executive director of Alliance San Diego and another attorney on Hern ndez Rojas development the decision offers hope in a moment when countless human rights advocates in the U S are struggling to see a way forward Why do we fight Because sometimes we win Guerrero disclosed A deportation and a killing The commission s decision detailed the facts of the situation as constructed through a review of hundreds of pages of police records and other materials submitted by attorneys representing the family as well as testimony from a hearing held in Born in San Luis Potos Mexico Hern ndez Rojas came to San Diego when he was according to the commission s document About six years later Hern ndez Rojas met his wife and they had five children Days after he turned in May Hern ndez Rojas was arrested on suspicion of attempting to steal food and beverages from a supermarket the decision document stated He was deported about two weeks after he was booked into the county jail A couple of weeks later Hern ndez Rojas tried to come back to his family and crossed the limit with his brother They were apprehended and taken to the Chula Vista Territory line Patrol Station in San Diego County Testimonies about what happened there offer conflicting accounts According to two agents declarations Hern ndez Rojas initially refused to throw away a bottle of water that he had with him One of the agents threw the water bottle in the trash and sent him to an interview room But according to testimony from Hern ndez Rojas brother as Hern ndez Rojas was emptying the water bottle into the trash an agent got angry and took the bottle from him pushed him into the wall and kicked him in the foot before sending him to the interview room An agent s declaration ratified that Hern ndez Rojas complained of pain in his ankle and appealed for anatomical healing But the two agents who were with him in the interview room stated that they looked at his ankle and decided he didn t need cure One disclosed in his declaration that he held that displaced persons frequently lied about anatomical requirements The commission revealed that this denial of diagnostic care was the first of countless violations of Hern ndez Rojas rights based on discrimination toward him as a migrant The agents decided to deport Hern ndez Rojas right away and took him to the deportation gate at the San Ysidro Port of Entry known in the agency as Whiskey- where they took off his handcuffs From there the testimonies grew even more disparate Two agents disclosed that Hern ndez Rojas went crazy and one announced he pushed and grabbed at representatives Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who joined the scene reported he punched at agents Other bureaucrats mentioned they didn t see him hit or assault anyone The ICE officers beat him with a steel baton according to the commission s summary of the facts of the episode and a group of four personnel knocked him down and handcuffed him face down on the ground as more officers joined them At this point Hern ndez Rojas began asking for help in Spanish Over the program of the beating his cries caught the attention of a multitude of who were bridging back from Mexico through the port of entry Eyewitnesses revealed they saw executives kneel on the back of Hern ndez Rojas neck and lower back while others punched kicked and stomped him Customs and Demarcation Protection Officer Jerry Vales went up to Hern ndez Rojas and advised him to stop resisting according to witness testimony The observers saw Vales kick him like a football kick the decision record noted Vales did not respond to Capital Main s attempts to reach him via social media accounts Vales then used his Taser at least four times on Hern ndez Rojas The device recorded two administrations at five seconds long a third at seconds and a fourth at seconds That final administration was in drive stun mode with the Taser pressed directly to Hern ndez Rojas chest which caused immediate convulsions the review explained Bystanders stated that Hern ndez Rojas body went limp after he was shocked by the Taser and that officers continued to beat him The beating and deployment of the Taser the commission unveiled amounted to torture So you have U S law enforcement personnel committing one of the worst crimes that we recognize as humanity the act of torture Altholz commented It s a crime that is put on equal level by international law as slavery The commission uncovered no argument to justify using a Taser on Hern ndez Rojas while he was on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back and in particular condemned the use of the device in drive stun mode When the functionaries noticed that Hern ndez Rojas no longer had a pulse they called for medics They explained the EMTs came right away but the anatomical examiner s analysis noted that resuscitation was delayed Hern ndez Rojas was taken to Sharp Chula Vista Anatomical Center where he was declared brain dead He died three days later Puga holds a set of rosary beads given to her while she kept vigil at Hern ndez Rojas bedside Photo by Barbara Davidson For Capital Main A cover-up In the moments after beating Hern ndez Rojas dividing line personnel erased video from phones and cameras that people overcoming through the port of entry had used to record the representatives actions The administrators didn t description the affair for more than four hours and the Territory line Patrol sent its own investigative band to the scene Known as a critical case group or critical episode inspection company these units have since been accused of covering up evidence in multiple cases where margin officers may have used excessive force including in the affair of Hern ndez Rojas The San Diego Police Department which should have been the law enforcement agency responsible for an review did not learn about what happened until around noon the following day when a KPBS journalist called to ask about the matter That meant that the crime scene was not preserved or documented for more than hours San Diego police did not respond to a request for comment Meanwhile according to declarations from three regime whistleblowers submitted with the scenario functionaries high up in the U S cabinet began to try to spin the narrative There are only two instances where in my years in law enforcement I was ordered to falsify reports James F Tomsheck assistant commissioner for Customs and Confines Protection s Office of Internal Affairs at the time of the killing stated in a declaration One of those instances was in the event of Hern ndez Rojas Tomsheck noted Jim Wong who was Customs and Limit Protection s deputy assistant commissioner for internal affairs at the time of the killing and who also contributed a declaration in the occurrence explained the international commission s findings made him feel validated especially on behalf of Tomsheck who died last year I really have no stake in it other than the fact that there was an injustice done and if you don t attempt to right what s wrong then you re part of what s wrong Wong declared Based on the information gathered initially from dividing line authorities San Diego police issued a news release referring to Hern ndez Rojas as the aggressor and the early probe characterized the margin administrators as the casualties Police were never able to obtain video footage of the scene from Customs and Territory line Protection because officers initially sent the wrong files and then the footage was recorded over according to the police record Edge Patrol s investigative association issued an administrative subpoena to obtain Hern ndez Rojas physiological records from the hospital but did not provide those documents to San Diego police It also participated in witness interviews Agents were also present for the autopsy where a toxicology screening detected traces of methamphetamine The presence of Perimeter Patrol agents during the autopsy as well as agents requests for blood samples at the hospital has raised questions for Hern ndez Rojas family Ultimately the physiological examiner officially declared the situation a homicide but could not say definitively how much the drugs might have contributed to his death A second autopsy requested by the family concluded that it was the trauma from the beating that killed Hern ndez Rojas When required about the occurrence the San Diego County Biological Examiner s Office disclosed that it conducts independent objective determinations for all deaths falling under its jurisdiction as a utility to the citizens Nearly two weeks after Hern ndez Rojas death the first video of the beating that had escaped boundary officers attempts to erase evidence was aired on a television news broadcast It was only then that police began interviewing bystanders who were passersby at the port of entry and the narrative of what happened began to shift from Hern ndez Rojas as the aggressor to him as the victim More than a month after his death San Diego police referred the scenario to the U S Attorney s Office That office declined to comment In a second video surfaced in an episode of PBS weekly news account Need to Know with a clearer picture of what authorities did to Hern ndez Rojas Almost without delay the FBI called me after it was distributed recalled Ashley Young who was in her early s at the time and spending a holiday weekend in San Diego with a friend when she saw what was happening to Hern ndez Rojas and decided to film it I can t spend a Memorial Day weekend without thinking about Anastasio and about what happened and what I witnessed she added The Department of Justice later held grand jury proceedings In more than five years after the killing the Department of Justice closed its probe without filing any charges In a news release the department cited methamphetamine as a contributing factor in Hern ndez Rojas death The commission in its decision pointed to the second autopsy examiner s finding that Hern ndez Rojas was alive and calling for help when administrators beat him suggesting that was what killed him rather than the presence of any drugs The evidence and testimony from the grand jury proceedings were never made community The commission took issue with this as well and called on the U S to make grand jury proceedings more transparent and accessible to casualties and their families Impunity in such cases not only facilitates its repetition but could also represent a form of social acceptance of these events that continuously fuel the discrimination cycle against immigrants the commission commented Seeking justice Puga has never stopped demanding justice for her husband In attorneys filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the family The family pushed in for San Diego prosecutors to reopen cases against the perimeter personnel involved in Hernandez Rojas death after learning about the extent of the cover-up through work on the circumstance for the commission Having true justice would be taking them all to court and to jail Puga mentioned Puga visits her husband s grave in San Diego Photo by Barbara Davidson For Capital Main The Mexican governing body also has followed the circumstance closely Last year on the th anniversary of Hern ndez Rojas death and the -year anniversary of the creation of the Demarcation Patrol Mexico issued a comment condemning the agency s use of force on its citizens The decision from the commission feels like a step in the right direction Puga stated It called for full reparations for the family including mental strength encouragement and reopening the criminal assessment It mentioned state representatives who participated in the killing or cover-up should be held accountable through administrative disciplinary or penal measures It also emphasized the importance of correcting the United States official narrative to show that Hern ndez Rojas was the victim in the encounter Lastly it called for measures to keep similar incidents from happening again including changing use-of-force standards to match the international guidelines of necessary and proportional rather than the United States legal measure of reasonable belief which the commission called broad and unclear In those measures it also disclosed the U S should prohibit the use of Tasers in drive stun mode because of the harm they re known to cause and provide more training to police officers on the use of force and human rights Though Puga announced she knows that the U S is not likely to comply with the commission s recommendations while President Donald Trump is in office she remains hopeful that the country will eventually follow through She noted that if Trump wants to go after criminals in the U S he should start with demarcation agents After waiting years for justice she noted she still has selected fight left in her to keep pushing This was a incident in which the whole region and organizations were supporting us Puga noted So this decision is for all of us but for my family it s something it s a relief more than anything at last the truth is being informed She has been taking flowers to her husband s grave at a hilly cemetery in San Diego every week or two for nearly years She talks to him daily often holding up a tear-stained photo of him in her bedroom After the attorneys came to her home to tell her about the commission s decision she went to tell her husband the news I notified him Yes we could she disclosed It s not going to stay in impunity I thanked him for giving me that bravery Capital Main is an award-winning nonprofit publication that reports from California on the the bulk pressing economic environmental and social issues of our time including economic inequality weather change healthcare care threats to democracy hate and extremism and immigration Copyright Capital Main